The horse-drawn carriage had pulled up at the palace entrance in no time, and the palace guards had opened the gates to inspect the vehicle.The moment they spotted Altair inside, one of the guards shouted:"THE FOURTH PRINCE IS HERE, OPEN THE GATES!!!"As the gates swung open, the coachman struggled to keep his composure to avoid a heart attack, driving the carriage right into the inner courtyard of the palace.When Altair stepped down from the carriage, he made a generous payment to the coachman and then walked straight through the palace gates.When the servants and guards saw him, they could sense the sleeplessness in his eyes and the strange, restless energy surrounding him.It would be fair to say that each of them had already begun to worry about Altair, whom they both respected and loved.The young man had managed to secure a meeting with Emperor Aurelion in a short space of time and had been able to demonstrate his invention in full to the emperor.By then, the entire imperial

Altair had waited for a while, postponing his climb up the tower for a little longer, mentally savouring the gold delivered to him every day.He had now chosen to think about the future rather than the dead woman, which was quite a rare occurrence for him.Altair had not forgotten that woman; he had simply tucked that memory away in a corner of his mind, into one of the deepest recesses of his memories, and refused to bring it back.Since that moment, when Aether had responded to him, the young man had truly been doing nothing but his daily training.Many spell engineers came to him seeking help and advice, and of course, Altair did not shy away from assisting them as part of his duty.Over the course of 11 days, Altair had earned nearly five hundred million gold pieces.Sales had been steadily declining; although the number of sales increased when they were opened up to commoners, the amount of money actually coming in had decreased significantly due to the price difference.Still, o

"All right, as you wish. Give me a day. I’ll sort you out a new identity and assign you three guards who’ll be at your beck and call. That way, you won’t have any trouble with local security either."When Aurelion finally accepted Altair’s offer, the young man took a deep breath and immediately added, “I’ll be clearing the fourteenth floor tomorrow, so if the floor duty takes a long time, we might not be able to meet, sir.”Aurelion shook his head at these words and told the young man he could go.What happened next was in the Emperor’s hands.Aurelion had already taken down Altair’s new name and surname and had him write down his characteristics in a note.In this situation, he would need to find the guards who were least likely to betray him, those who knew Altair’s true identity, and place them under his command.These… would most likely be slaves.Yes, the concept of slavery was quite normal within Aculon.After all, Aculon was a tower with a history written in blood. Within it, m

"Those who seek answers first shall see how far the answer can go. It is not I who should give you an answer; it is you who shall find it," the woman had replied.Altair scratched his head at these words, unable to make sense of what was really happening.A random woman had suddenly appeared before him on the fourteenth floor of Aculon, introduced herself as the tower, that is, Aculon itself, and then, changing her tone, explained that everyone was Aculon.Now, however, she had said that the answers were the very things Altair needed to seek.What was going on?“Come, child. We shall begin your quest, your mission, your training,” the woman had said suddenly, turning her back and resuming her walk with soft steps.Altair began to follow her, and after taking his tenth step, his heart gave a single thud and settled into a calm rhythm.The area around the young man had completely changed.The clear, dark space from moments before had vanished, replaced by a valley covered in snow, surro

Altair had not ignored the grey smoke; on the contrary, he had tried to pass through it.However, as he did so, he noticed that his own spirit had begun to cling to the spot just above his navel, where that clear light, which was beginning to darken and fade, resided.At that moment, Altair saw that the grey smoke was striking only his abdomen.It felt as though his soul was in pain whenever the grey smoke struck him.But why was such a method being used to enhance the soul’s strength and resilience?Wasn’t this simply causing the soul pain?Altair truly did not know what to do, yet he kept thinking constantly, hoping to find an answer to the approaching smoke with every passing second.He looked around again and again, wondering if he could manage to find an answer.After nearly a minute, he took a deep breath and looked at his soul once more.It was very small, the same size as him, and looked frail.But what if this grey smoke was actually the very thing that would strengthen his s